Loudoun Fairfax Hunt Master Randy Rouse has donated a well-known Middleburg, Virginia property to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. The transaction was completed on Thursday, December 29, the day after Randy celebrated his one hundredth birthday.

“I can take a tax writeoff,” Randy said to The Fauquier Times. “At my age, I’ve got to start thinking about the future.”

Rouse has been a successful real estate developer in Northern Virginia, a longtime Master of the Fairfax Hunt, winning amateur steeplechase rider, and president of the National Steeplechase Association.

The property, the Middleburg Training Center, was originally built by Paul Mellon as a training facility for his racehorses. It boasts a 7/8-mile track, multiple barns, paddocks, tack rooms, offices, grooms’ quarters, and house.

In 1975, a group of local horsemen purchased the facility. Over the years the track surface has resounded to the hoof beats of many good horses, among them Hoist the Flag and Spectacular Bid. Randy Rouse bought the training center in 2006 for four million dollars, but its usage has declined over the years, and, though it’s been on the market recently, there have been no takers.

The non-profit Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF), plans to continue current operations—eighty horses are now stabled there—and will renovate barns and add more fencing. As many as ninety Thoroughbreds could be retired on the property, according to Lenny Hale, TRF president and CEO.

For more details, click to read the complete article by Vicky Moon and Leonard Shapiro.

Posted December 31, 2016

Comments

What a great match. I grew up with the training track as part of my history, and was delighted to hear this news. A perfect place for OTTB's themselves and for the community to champion the cause of providing new lives for these horses. (I'm a tad biased because I own a lovely OTTB, thanks to CANTER). A high profile repurposing of the training track for these deserving horses. Well done, Mr. Rouse.